REDMI 3S- POWER AT LAST

Xiaomi Inc. is a true blue chip company in the making. Over the last 5 years, Xiaomi Inc. has gone through an intense transformation. From being a virtual nobody at the time of startup, this Chinese tech giant has become a global phenomenon in the smart phone arena. With an impressive line of products extending from budget models to premium devices, Xiaomi Inc. is poised to go places, literally, as it embarks on an ambitious expansion plan beyond South East Asia.

Xiaomi Inc. is a privately held company with its headquarters in Beijing, China. It is primarily involved with the manufacture of smart phones but has significant business interests in the computer hardware vertical also.

In a very short span of time (5 years or so), Xiaomi Inc. has become a major player in the global arena. This has been aided in no small extent by the rising usage of smart phones in the 2 most populous countries of the world, India and China. Both these markets, especially mainland China, has a significant market presence for Xiaomi product lines. A rising demand curve for Xiaomi products in such diverse demographic regions of the world will only reiterate the company’s continued exponential growth.

In terms of the brand name, the word “Xiaomi” stands for “Millet”: a type of grain that is part of the staple diet in many regions globally.

In terms of a financial perspective, the market capitalization for Xiaomi Inc. stands between 40-50 billion USD. In terms of unit sales, Xiaomi Inc. currently holds 5.6% of the global smart phone market share. The primary sales pipelines for the company are centered on China, India and Indonesia – all having significant population levels.

The latest offering from the Xiaomi Inc. stable is the Xiaomi Redmi 3S. This product was launched in India on 3rd August 2016. The product is available as 2 variants i.e. the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime. As part of the initial product offering, only the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime will be available in India. Initially preorders will only be accepted on Mi.com and Flipkart. At a later stage, the other major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Snapdeal will start accepting orders for fulfillment.

Unlike other product launches undertaken by Xiaomi Inc., the company will not host any flash sales for the Xiaomi Redmi 3S. Both the Xiaomi Redmi 3S/Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime are manufactured in India. From a pricing angle, the Xiaomi Redmi 3S retails for Rs. 6,999 while the 3S Prime retails for Rs. 8,999.

Order fulfillment for the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime begins on August 9th while the Xiaomi Redmi 3S will begin shipping from 16th August. The only difference between the Xiaomi Redmi 3S and Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime lies in the arena of memory capacity and on board storage specifications. The Xiaomi Redmi 3S also lacks the fingerprint sensor present in the Xiaomi Redmi 3S Prime variant.

The Redmi 3S ships out with 2GB of RAM coupled with 16GB of onboard storage while the Redmi 3S Prime has 3GB of RAM and is matched with an onboard storage of 32GB.In terms of the release cycle, India is the 1st overseas market to be targeted after China for the Redmi 3S.

Both the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime are powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chipset clocked at 1.1 GHz. Storage capacity on both models is augmented by a microSD card(up to 128GB). Dual SIM’s are supported by both the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime models. In terms of display specifications, both the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime have a 5-inch HD screen capable of delivering a crisp output of 720×1280 pixels.

The software platform is based on Android’s 6.0 Marshmallow layered up top with Xiaomi’s custom MIUI 7.5 interface. In terms of camera specifications, the rear-facing camera sports a respectable 13-megapixel while the front-facing camera supports 5-megapixel.Both the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime support a variety of modern connectivity toolsets including 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, GPRS/EDGE and Bluetooth etc.

A decent battery life is guaranteed by a 4100 mAh unit. Product measurements for both the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime pan out at 139.3×69.6×8.5 mm. The market for budget smart phones in India is now varied like never before. Customers have a large choice of offerings, both in terms of brand and pricing levels. Xiaomi, through the Redmi 3S and Redmi 3S Prime has now upped the competition threshold to a new level with these 2 new releases.